Good evening folks, I'm writing this on night one of the Daily News Golden Gloves Championship Round. It's a two night event at the theater at Madison Square Garden. I'll be keeping a running diary of both nights.

8:17PM Pedro Sosa vs Jose Florentino for the 141-pound open title. Sosa is 16, the youngest fighter in the tourney and the junior national champion. I feel like I wasted my teenage years now.

8:18PM: It's round 2. Florentino is doing some dancing around, but he's also throwing a lot of punches at Sosa. He's looking very elusive.

8:22PM Round 3 now. Both boxers are really throwing punches in the center of the ring now. Florentino has better combos.

8:24PM I think I'm going to call this one for Florentino baring a knockdown. He's just thrown so many more punches.

8:25PM Both boxers ended the match with a huge flurry in the final seconds, but I think Florentino threw more punches.

8:27PM And in yet another show that I know nothing, Sosa is declared the winner. Color me actually shocked.

8:44PM My computer just crashed. I lost about 20 minutes of blogging, but that's alright. I'll press on! In the 152-pound novice, Shawn Cameron of Canarsie just defeated Richie Neves of Garden City, much to the disdain of the massive crowd that Neves brought on hand.

8:50PM 119-pound women: Alexis Asher vs Christina Cruz. Cruz is the defending champion, Asher was champion in 2007. Should be a good fight.

8:53PM Asher came out fighting in the sound round. In the middle of the match, she threw a right that connected square to Cruz's chest and could be heard throughout the theater. Cruz answered back with a right to Asher's head.

8:59PM Cruz was backpedaling until she could find an opening and then throwing a punch. Ahser countered by getting her up against a corner. Fourth round coming up.

9:02PM Cruz caught Asher square on the jaw right before the bell. Asher threw more punches, Cruz landed more powerful ones. Let's see who wins.

9:04PM Cruz is declared winner, holds onto her title.

9:06PM Up next is the 132 pound novice matchup between William Moyet and Wesley Ferrer. There's quite an age gap here, Moyet is 25, Ferrer is 17. Both fighters have 3 decisions and 1 knockout.

9:13PM We have our first knockdown of the night. Moyet went down with about 1:40 remaining in the second round. He's come back with a vengence though, as he pinned Ferrer in the corner for most about 30 of the next 60 seconds.

9:15PM Ferrer is hitting Moyet hard in the third round. Moyet just got a standing 8 count.

9:17PM Ferrer knocked Moyet down again! This one's over, the referee stopped the fight. Ferrer is the winner, folks.

9:23PM First Heavyweight fight of the night folks. This one is between Abdelghani Bousmah of France and Ngoli Okafor of the Bronx and is for the heavyweight open championship. Okafor last year's Golden Gloves novice champion.

9:26PM Okafor has Bousmah up against the ropes early. Bousmah just caught a right to the chin.

9:29PM End of round 1. Bousmah took a lot of shots. Okafor is just a little quicker.

9:31PM Match halted while Bousmah's headguard is tightened. Okafor just hit Bousmah below the belt, prompting boos from the crowd.

9:33PM Bousmah gets Okafor up against the ropes and starts delivering some blows.

9:35PM Time for round 3. Okafor is missing a lot of big shots, but he cornered Bousmah and started pummeling him.

9:37PM Both boxers look exhausted. The end of the third round was just a slog-fest.

9:39PM Okafor is dancing around and screaming before he's been announced the winner. It's a formailty, but still, you'd like to see a little more class and respect for his opponent.

9:41PM Okafor is officially announced the winner.

9:44PM Next match is between Shemuel Pagan of Borough Park and Vasilly Zherbnenko of Brighton Beach. This match is for the 132-pound open title. Pagan is a three time champion, Zherbnenko won the novice title in 2007.

9:54PM Zherbnenko has walked into a few punches thus far. Literally. He has leaned in. He also tends to try to wrap up Pagan the moment he starts throwing combos. This would annoy me greatly if I were fighting him. (But I'm not, and it's a good thing, because he'd destroy me easily!)

9:59PNM Zherbnenko leaned in tried to throw and punch, and caught a left to the face. He just caught a right and stumbled.

10:03PM The holding in this bought has been incredible. Both boxers have stumbled often. I'm almost expecting them to body slam each other.

10:05PM Fans are booing at the conclusion of the match. I have to agree. It was pretty ugly. Like watching an old Detroit Pistons-San Antonio Spurs game. Both boxers are being booed loudly when raising their arms to the crowd.

10:07PM Pagan is declared the winner, Zherbnenko is pretty unhappy about it, tearing his hand away from the ref.

Ok, well I've got to catch the Long Island Railroad back home, but I'll be back tomorrow!

Friday Night

And it's time for Night two of the Golden Gloves. This is it folks, the final night. There are 14 matches on the schedule tonight, starting with with the 141-pound women championship bout between Kirsten Havdoglous of Long Island and Grace Claudio of the Bronx. It's 7:35, I'm up on red bull, let's get it on!

7:37 Round one went to Havdoglous. Claudio came out strong to start, but Havdoglous started hammering away around the mid point of the first round, landing about eight head shots and forcing a standing eight count.

7:40 And it's over. Havdoglous kept going to Claudio's head, forcing two eight counts, with the second count ending the match. The ref stopped the match a little over a minute into the second round. This was a mismatch.

7:43PM Second match of the night is a 112 pound novice fight between Daveshua Sepulveda and Joshua James Gonzalez. Both fighters hail from the Bronx. Sepulveda has a record of 2 decisions, Gonzalez has a knockout and a disqualification. I tend to keep an eye on the fighters with KO's in their records, so I'm expecting Gonzalez to pull this one out.

7:49PM Two fighters with very different styles. Sepulveda favors his jab, and throws a flurry of punches, while Gonzalez has a very powerful right hook that he waits to throw. The two fights danced around in round 1, with Gonzalez trying to corner Sepulveda. If he lands that hook...ouch.

7:52PM Another good round. Sepulveda is too fast for Gonzalez, although he did get pinned a few times in the corner. Whichever boxer tires first will be the one that gets downed.

7: 56PM End of the three rounds. Sepulveda did a magnificent job of avoiding Gonzalez's hook and landing punches. He even cornered Gonzalez in the third round. And the winner is...Sepulveda. Can't say I'm surprised, he threw way more punches than Gonzalez. Speed beat out power this time.

7:59PM Next up is the 106 pound women bout between Ruth O'Sullivan of Brooklyn and Jillkerry Ward of Manhattan. This is the first bout of the year for both boxers. Fun fact, Ward is an actress and model.

8:12PM O'Sullivan does not play around, she's keeps hammering away at Ward's face. (Ward doesnt seem to be doing a very good job of protecting her face.) I'm certain she's bleeding too, and shes had two eight counts already This match is getting stopped.

8:15PM Color me correct. The match was stopped with 25 seconds left in the third round. Ward was given her third eight count a minute into the round, and just could not protect her face. O'Sullivan: a two time champion, wins her third.

8:19PM Next up is the 119-pound open match between Raul Lopez of Manhattan, and Noel Solis of Long Island City. Lopez was last year's 112-pound open champion. (Hint, hint)

8:22PM Score a knockdown for Lopez. Lopez is using a lot of body blows.

8:24PM Good first round of Lopez, body shots and combos had Solis on the ropes, literally. Solis has to move faster if he wants to win.

8:26PM Solis just got called for holding, lost a point. A great combo by Lopez just forced a standing eight count.

8:28PM And the fight was just stopped. I think the doctor stopped the match, and with good cause, Solis was taking a beating.

8:29PM A large portion of the crowd just started chanting for Leon Falconer, a fighter in the next match.

8:31PM The referee stopped the match. My mistake.

8:34PM Up next are two fighters from Jamaica, Queens, the aforementioned Leon Falconer from Gleason's Gym and De'Vaun Lee, who is fighting unattached. This is for the 178-pound novice title. Falconer clearly has the home-court advantage.

8:39PM This looks like the first really tough fight of the night. Both boxers stood and fought each other. Lee cornered Falconer a few times and let loose on him, one hitting him so hard against the ropes that his knees buckled. Round 2 times.

8:42PM Great second round. Lee really had Falconer on the defensive. Really cool, almost the entire crowd broke into chants of “Let's go Leon.” They're actually doing it again as I type this.

8:45PM What a round. Falconer came out of nowhere with a flurry of punches, but then Lee began to wear him down. Lee got Falconer on the ropes, but Falconer responded with another huge flurry. Falconer looked tired, but then responded with a HUGE flurry, including an uppercut that knocked Lee's head back before the end of the round. Hug e applause for both fighters. Well deserved. AND SOMEHOW FALCONER WON! WOW! Crowd is very happy! Half the crowd starts booing, and understandably so.

8:57PM Missed most of the next fight while getting over to Leon Falconer. He's very happy. His secret? “Hard work. I'm in the gym every day, and I stay away from girls.” You know, hes the second boxer to tell me this during this tournament. I wonder, what do girls have to do with your ability to punch someone?

8:59 Next match is a women,s heavyweight fight between Sonya Lamonakis and Shanell Mathis. From what I've seen, Lamonakis got a knockdown, but Mathis has come out swinging in round three. It was a big third round as both ladies really took it to each other. Mathis' corner seems to be working harder to get her ready for round 4.

9:02PM Both ladies are trading blows in the center of the ring. Lamonakis just nailed Mathis with a left to the face. Mathis has spent most of the round tied up against the ropes.

9:04PM And the fight is over. I've gotta say, from the short bit I saw, it looks like Lamonkis should win, she was pretty tough in rounds three and four.

9:05PM I just checked the records, Lamonkis has a knockout, Mathis has a decision. This makes Lamonakis' performance less of a surprise. And even less of a surprise is the fact that she won. Did I mention that Sonya Lamonakis is a sixth grade teacher? Man, I would not want to be a misbehaving student in her class!

9:08PM You know, watching the Golden Gloves makes me want to learn to box. Of course, I know that I would get destroyed very easily. (Heck, my dog routinely out-wrestles me!), but those golden glove necklaces that the winners get are just so darn mesmerizing.

9:21PM Apologies folks, I had to run to the little boxer's room. While I was gone, Jayquran Hazel of Bed-Stuy and Jose Peralta of Ridgewood got in on for the 141-pound novice title. Hazel came out on top, much to the disdain of the crowd.

927PM Last match before intermission. Steven Martinez from the Bronx and Chris Ventura from Yonkers.

9:34PM Good first round. These are big, fast fighters. Ventura has a very fast combo that he landed a few times, but he also lost a point for holding. Time for round 2.

938PM Eventful second round. Ventura was penalized again for holding, and once was hit so hard that his looked ready to fall had the ropes not caught him.

9:40PM Peralta gets knocked down! In the third round. Back he comes, and both boxers are really giving it to each other.

9:43PM Crowd's getting restless with the holds, and then Ventura gets knocked down right before the end of the round. Who wins, I dunno. Ventura hops to the top rope and gets booed. Peralta gets booed too. The match had a great flow until the third round. A LOT of holds were called, and it really broke up the flow of the fight. The winner is....Peralta! It really could've gone either way.